REKINDLING THE JOY OF
CHRISTMAS PAST PENELOPE CARLEVATO | PENELOPECARLEVATO.COM
CAROLING ON CHRISTMAS EVE, TRIMMING THE TREE AND LISTENING TO CHRISTMAS SONGS ARE PART OF MY FAMILY’S TRADITIONS. We also make a gingerbread
house, buy an Advent calendar, and celebrate Boxing Day! We read the Christmas story on Christmas Eve, watch quintessential Christmas movies on television and hide Elf on the Shelf. Like many families, these traditions are passed on from one generation to the next, and we occasionally
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. —Colossians 3:16 26 leadinghearts.com
add new ones. But the custom of singing the familiar carols is my favorite. Christmas carols play a big part in many traditions. Thanks to modern technology, we hear them everywhere: while driving, baking Christmas cookies, shopping in the mall, dining in restaurants and, of course, in church. I find myself singing along with Bing Crosby, Mariah Carey, Elvis Presley, Justin Bieber and numerous other performers as Christmas creeps closer. Christmas carols are in every genre of music, and we sing along without really thinking of the words. They are like an old piece of furniture — they have been around so long we are used to them. We sing the words but don’t pay much attention to the meaning or who wrote them. Many carols we sing today date back hundreds of years and were initially written to celebrate the winter solstice, a pagan celebration. Some carols or hymns were written in Latin in the fourth century and sung by monks in seminaries. The words and tunes often found different versions as troubadours and singing minstrels went from region to region singing the carols. They were often part of street singing and not part of a religious service. Between 1649 and 1660, Christmas carols were banned by Oliver Cromwell, who believed that Christmas should be a solemn day and not a day of rejoicing. In the 1840s, Christmas and the singing of carols
